Healio (1/3, Dreisbach) reported, “High daily opioid dosages are associated with a heightened risk for overdose in adolescents and young adults,” researchers concluded after conducting “a retrospective cohort study of 2,752,612 privately insured patients aged 12 to 21 years with opioid prescription claims and no cancer diagnosis via the IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database between July 1, 2009, and Oct. 1, 2017.” The findings were published online Dec. 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “High opioid dosages increase overdose risk in young patients, “Eamon Dreisbach, Healio, January 3, 2020

Reuters (1/3, Rapaport) reported, “Children may learn from an early age when it’s appropriate to drink and how many drinks are okay from watching all the adults in their lives,” investigators concluded after asking “75 fathers and 83 mothers how common it would be for adults to drink in a range of situations like during a party, at work, while watching television or while driving,” then asking “359 unrelated children, ages 4 to 8, in which situations they thought it was common or appropriate for adults to drink.” The study also revealed that as children grew “older, they became increasingly aware of social norms surrounding alcohol consumption,” but “familiarity with alcohol might make kids more likely to start drinking earlier in life or lead to more frequent drinking.” The findings were published online in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.

Related Links:

— “Kids see you when you’re drinking, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 3, 2020

Reuters (1/3, Chander) reported, “People with mental illness get screened for cancer at much lower rates than the general population, which may contribute to higher rates of cancer deaths among the mentally ill, researchers say.” The disparities were found to be “greatest among women with schizophrenia, who were roughly half as likely as women in the general population to be screened for breast cancer.” The results were published online in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “People with mental illness less likely to get cancer screening, “Vishwadha Chander, Reuters Health, January 3, 2020

U.S. News & World Report (1/2, Newman) reports US adults “diagnosed with arthritis commonly reported frequent mental distress and depression in 2017, according to a new federal study.” Patients in Kentucky “reported the highest frequency of mental distress, those in Oklahoma had the highest history of depression, and those in Hawaii had the lowest prevalences for both.” Researchers “used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to ‘estimate state-specific prevalence of frequent mental distress and history of depression among adults with arthritis’ in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the study” published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Related Links:

— “Mental Distress Most Common Among Arthritic Adults in Appalachia, South, ” Katelyn Newman, U.S. News, January 2, 2020

The AP (1/1) reports that CMS has “approved Indiana’s request to use Medicaid funding to provide expanded services to residents diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.” The agency “authorized the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to use those funds to pay for short term care for patients admitted at large institutions for mental disease, rather than continuing to limit treatment to facilities with fewer than 16 beds.”

Related Links:

— “US OKs Medicaid funds for large mental health facilities, AP, January , 2020

The Christian Science Monitor (12/31, Kuz) reported that currently, nearly “70% of veterans who take their own lives use a firearm…and one-third of former service members store guns loaded and unlocked in their homes.” Because of this, “the VA has sought to promote firearm safety as part of its campaign to reduce suicide risk, urging veterans to consider precautions that include gun locks, removing a gun’s firing pin, or storing firearms outside the home.” Such “safety measures can slow a person’s ability to follow through on suicidal thoughts and preempt an irrevocable choice, explains Matt Miller, the VA’s acting director for suicide prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Can veterans lead the way on preventing suicide?, ” Martin Kuz , The Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 2019

HealthDay (12/31, Preidt) reported that on its own, “opioid addiction is tough enough to beat, but new research shows that having an accompanying methamphetamine habit may make quitting” much harder. After looking at “799 people receiving opioid addiction treatment at three sites in Washington State,” investigators “found that methamphetamine use was associated with a more than twofold higher risk of dropping out of treatment for opioid addiction.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the February issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Related Links:

— “Opioid-Meth Habit Particularly Hard to Break, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 31, 2019

The New York Times (12/30, Chokshi) reports researchers “found that opioid deaths were about 85 percent higher among people of prime working age – 16 to 65 – in counties where automotive assembly plants had closed five years earlier, compared with counties where such factories remained open.” The study, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggests that the closure of automotive factories “may have contributed to a rise in local opioid overdose deaths in recent years.”

Newsweek (12/30, Gander) reports researchers examined data between 1999 and 2016 from 112 industrial counties largely in the Midwest and the South. During the study period, “29 counties were affected by a plant closure, while 83 counties weren’t.” The researchers found that “plant closures were followed by a statistically significant increase in deaths due to opioids overdoses. After five years, mortality rates increased by 8.6 deaths…per 100,000 in such regions, compared with areas not hit by a factory shutting down,” which “amounted to an 85 percent increase.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Deaths Rise When Auto Plants Close, Study Shows, ” Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

The Atlantic (12/30, Rizga) reports on a program called ASD Nest, which places students with autism “alongside neurotypical students in classrooms led by specially trained teachers.” The program, which “launched in 2003 with four teachers and has since expanded to 54 elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City,” is a “collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and NYU.” Furthermore, the program “places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom.”

Related Links:

— “What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism, “Kristina Rizga, The Atlantic, December 30, 2019

The Boston Globe (12/30, Martin) reports on a program aiming “to curb problematic pot use” among teenagers. The “Charlestown program – funded by Massachusetts General Hospital’s center for community health improvement – is part of a growing effort around the state to help high schoolers make sound choices about cannabis in an era of marijuana legalization,” focusing more so on “treatment rather than on abstinence and punishment.” The article adds, “The program teaches students to try healthy stress relievers like exercise or meditation, before encouraging them to cut back on pot in a realistic way,” however, it “stops short of one step: demanding they quit altogether.”

Related Links:

— “New approach to curbing marijuana use among teens: ‘just say no’ gives way to ‘just smoke less’, ” Naomi Martin, The Boston Globe, December 30, 2019